Southeast High grad first journalist at UCF scene

UCF senior Adrienne Cutway was in bed, talking with her boyfriend on the phone, when she got a text message tip from a friend that something was wrong on campus.

It was around midnight, and she slipped on a hoodie and grabbed her purse with her press pass, her cell phone and a camera — the tools of a mobile journalist.

"I wanted to find the action," said Cutway, the editor of the student newspaper Central Florida Future and a 2009 graduate of Bradenton's Southeast High School. "I was definitely the first journalist there."

Covering stories, Cutway had seen police officers with their guns in their holsters before. But that night, she saw an officer holding a gun that seemed like "the size of my torso," a sign that whatever happened was "major."

But there wasn't panic among University of Central Florida students, who had been evacuated and were outside.

Some wore sweatpants or huddled in a blankets. Another girl showed up in a green shirt and high heels, like she just left a St. Patrick's Day party.

"I kind of heard groans. I think students were more bummed they were kicked out of their dorm in the middle of the night," said Cutway, 21, who also works on the web desk at the Orlando Sentinel.

For the rest of the night, she wrote updates on Twitter while she waited for official word from university officials on the details of the incident. She checked social media as students posted rumors, like a gunman was still roaming campus.

At around 5:30 a.m., Cutway went home then left at 8 a.m. for her second job at the Sentinel web desk, not having slept.

"I'm not quite tired. I should be tired," she said after fielding several media requests. "This is one of the biggest — if not the biggest — story I've written."

As she thought about her school, Cutway said she felt sorry for the gunman and wished more students knew where to get help for mental health issues.

"I feel awful for the student," she said. "I wish our St. Patrick's Day hadn't ended like that."

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